Type Play Info

A 3-axis variable typeface inspired by the classic word game and the act of filling-in-the-blanks, + an interactive web tool.

Mad Libs VF | Fall 2024 | 7 weeks | Individual

Type Design: Variable
Glyphs 3
HTML/CSS

Pixelated Fun

Mad Libs is a pixel typeface with three axes of variability, featuring a full character set, 20 emoticons, and automatically enabled ligatures that replace certain action verbs. This allows for discovery and spontaneity, especially in everyday conversations with verbs like eat, cry, or yell. The typeface first came to life when considering how we depict actions through emojis and how keyboard suggestions replace entire words and phrases with a single symbol.

Serif/Weight/Dance

The three axes present control the type on a scale of 0-100. Serif allows feet and subtle curls to emerge; Weight increases the density of the circular pixel; and Dance animates the emoji set.

Compartmentalize your type, not your feelings.

Mad Libs includes positional forms, accessed through contextual alternates—so you can throw anything into a bubble. These bubbles are ideal for creating hierarchy within text, whether for emphasis, numbering, or labeling.

Special Ligatures

A set of 20 kinetic emojis accompany 20+ auto-enabled ligatures, so you can use them in any tense - are you jumping for joy, or have you already jumped? There is no shortage of expressiveness in Mad Libs.

Custom-coded HTML Specimen Tool

The Mad Libs Web Tool was designed to accommodate the typeface’s unique properties. Emojis can be easily inserted by pressing a button rather than searching for a Unicode or special glyph value. Contextual alternates can also be toggled with a button. Four sliders control the axes of variability and type size. This web tool was a playful nod to Dinamo’s Font Gauntlet and was made possible with the help of Gabriel Drozdov’s resources on coding variable type for the web.